a couple of times actually. jack kennedy lowered tax increase growth rate. >> now you're jack kennedy? >> so who won? we asked folks who watched the debate who won. according to the cnn/orc poll 48% said ryan performed better. 44% gave it to joe biden. that's within the margin of error. let's get some perspective on this. jessica yellin is our chief white house correspondent. ron brownstein is the editorial director for the national journal. let's start with substance. there's been a lot of talk about style. i want you to listen to how each of the men handled the issue of libya, something that's in the news right now, and that deadly attack on the u.s. consulate. listen. >> this is becoming more troubling by the day. they first blamed the youtube video. now they're trying to blame the romney/ryan ticket for making this an issue. >> we weren't told they wanted more security. we did not know they wanted more security again. and, by the way, at the time, we were told exactly -- we said exactly what the intelligence community told us, that they knew. >> jessica, this is an issue t

ronald reagan. >> jack kennedy -- >> jack kennedy coming up in these debates. both men covered several elections. biden came off as rude he has never seen anything like this from any other candidate. >> what you saw while paul ryan was talking was smirking, laughing, smiling, mugging, by the vice president. and my sense about it was that it was so xheling people couldn't see the keep their eye off of it. i thought it was unattractive and rude and i have a feeling it will come across as rude. it looks like a cranky old man to some extent debating a polite young man. >> i think i have watched almost every presidential and vice presidential debate since the first four kennedy nixon debates since 1960 thinking back over the next few minutes i don't believe i have ever seen a debate when one participant was as openly disrespectful as the other as biden was to paul ryan. you can talk about the smirks the head shaking, it was con tenuous and disrespectful. >> that lead us to our brew on this question of the day. what did you think of the debate? send your comments via tweet. tweet them to us

. >> jack kennedy was a friend of mine, senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> so powerful moments, rick, but did they make a difference? >> two of the most vice presidential debate lines of all time but both were uttered by losing candidates. they know the stakes are huge for the debate. this is brand-new terrain for paul ryan. biden has more pressure on him now than ever because of the man at the top of the ticket's poor performance last week. >> we'll all be watching. rick klein with the bigger picture, thank you. this right here one on one, george and diane at the dafk and jake tapper and me at the debate hall and martha raddatz moderating the debate beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on abc. >>> we move on tonight to a key issue for many voters in the electric, the soaring price of gas. now at a record for this time of year, averaging $3.81 nationally, that's up 3 cents in the past week and in california, lo look at this, 4.65. we're asking what's going on in california and are we about to see a turning point with those prices. here's abc's brandi hitt with that tonight

to teach me about foreign policy. >> i served with jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> that was really uncalled for, senator. >> all that trickle down, i call it niagra falls. >> senator dole and mr. kemp would put the the american economy and a barrel and send it over the falls. >> i see my wife and she's thinking i wish you would go in the private sec sor. zwl i'm going to try to help you do that. >> thinking of your plan, barack obama's offered a clear plan. >> your plan is a white flag of surrender. surrender. >> this is cnn. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> the vice presidential candidates, front and center tonight in a campaign that's very close once again. >> just 26 days before the election and we're seeing these debates tonight. >> a young gun republican appearing in his first national debate. >> we can turn this around. it is not too late to revive the american dream. >> an experienced democrat, returning to a familiar stage. >> they just have no credibility. it's not just what you say, it's what you don't. >> both

kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> two very memorable lines but you made an interesting observation. >> they are quite famous but both were uttered by losing candidates. paul ryan and joe biden know the stakes are huge for this debate. this is brand-new terrain for ryan. biden has more pressure on him than last week after the man at the top of the ticket did not deliver. >> rick klein with the bigger picture, thank you. >>> a reminder right here, "one on one, the candidates debate" on thursday night, diane and george right at the desk. jake tapper and me at the debate hall, and abc's martha raddatz will be moderating the debate. it all begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on abc. >>> in the meantime, we move on to a key issue for voters, the soaring price of gas. averaging 3.81 nationally, that's up 3 cents in the past week. and in california, look at this, an average of 4.65 a gallon, so tonight we're asking what's going on in california, and are we about to see a turning point with those prices? here's abc's brandi hitt now. >> reporter: california dri

growth. >> now you're jack kennedy? >> the interruptions, the facial expressions, and the facts. we're going to have the high lights, the low lights, the arguments and a fact check as well on the candidates' claims. it's friday october 12th. "starting point" comes to you live from danville, kentucky. >>> good morning, welcome everybody. you're watching "starting point." we're coming to you live this morning from center college here in danville, kentucky. things last night right here were pretty heated between the vice presidential candidates, no one had a bad night. nobody was too polite. instead joe biden, paul ryan, simply let it fly and when it was over the american people scored it a draw. cnn/orc poll of debate watchers showed that 48% felt that paul ryan won. 44% said that the vice president joe biden won. of course that would be a statistical tie when you calculate in the margin of error. we begin with cnn's dana bash with some of the highlights of the night. good morning. >> good morning. we were here. we watched it all. you really could feel the intensity of it from the beginn

most serious debate moments everywhere lloyd bentson took on dan quayle and said you're no jack kennedy but in the end george h.w. bush still won that race. >> george stephanopoulos, thank you very much. great to see you here on the set this morning. george has a big show this morning featuring romney campaign senior adviser ed gillespie and obama campaign senior adviser robert gibbs and also bill o'reilly and george will co-anchor along with diane sawyer our coverage of the vice presidential debate this thursday night moderated by abc's award-winning correspondent martha raddatz starting at 9:00 eastern, 6:00 pacific. >> looking forward to see martha moderate that debate. for now the other top headlines. for that we go to ron. >> we'll begin with new concerns coming out of syria about the civil war in that country. "the new york times" is reporting that saudi arabia and qatar are sending money and small arms to rebels but are refusing to provide heavier weapons because of objections by the united states. the government is worried that weapons like shoulder-fired missiles could

about foreign policy. >> i served with jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> that was really uncalled for, senator. >> you call that trickle down, i call it niagra falls. >> senator dole, mr. kent would put the american economy in a barrel and send it over the falls. >> i can see my wife. and i think she's thinking i wish you would go out into the private sector. >> i'm going to try to help you do that. >> with all due respect in your plan barack obama's offered a clear plan. >> your plan is a white flag of surrender. >>> happening now, countdown to tonight's vice presidential debate. we're covering it like no other network. first, a cnn exclusive. paul ryan tells us about his preparations to go head-to-head with vice president joe biden. standby. also behind the scenes photos and new details from vice president biden's practice sessions. and new polls from the swing states are coming in. they show why tonight's debate is more crucial than ever for both men at the top of the ticket. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

have ever seen. this one got personal. >> jack kennedy lowered taxes, increased growth. ronald reagan -- >> oh, now, you're jack kennedy. >> reporter: barb after barb. >> i know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground. but i think people will be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other. >> well, don't take all of the four minutes then. >> reporter: biden was often dominant. maybe a little too dominant. republicans claimed he interrupted ryan 82 times. often breaking out in laughter. even when ryan was talking about iranian nukes. >> and all i have to point to -- >> reporter: biden was even all smiles when he accused ryan of basically not telling the truth. >> this is a bunch of stuff. look, here's the deal. >> what does that mean, a bunch of stuff? >> well, it means it's simply inaccurate. >> it's irish. >> it is. we irish call it malarkey. >> reporter: they disagreed on virtually everything. from syria, to medicare. >> now they got a new plan. trust me. it's not going to cost you any more. folks, follow your instincts on this one. >> they got caught with

. >> now you're jack kennedy. >> well that was interruption. that was also a put-down and vice president biden woos factually wrong. jfk, ronald reagan, george w. bush, all of them tax rates, and the end result was a an increase in money flowing to the treasury. revenues went up when tax rates went down. joe biden was wrong. jamie: stu varney doing fact check for us this morning. bill: last night the twitter verse was going nuts. the thing was going to explode if it went more. that line was the most tweeted comment last night. one minute after the line about jack kennedy, 58,000 tweets. that is what was going on out there. jamie: it is a talker. bill: we're just getting started. some on the right feeling vice president biden interrupted congressman ryan too much. we'll can the romney team this morning about all the morning after. jamie: sarah palin knows exactly what it is like to debate joe biden. ahead we'll get her reaction. bill: vice president's biden and laffer and facial expresses getting a lot of headlines. did ha help or hurt his campaign. mike huckabee here to weigh in on that.

like this one sth. >> jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. bill: does this year's vp debate carry more weight than normal? patti ann: also, why hundreds of retirees are now clashing with police in greece. bill: police are saying they stopped an apparent terror attack just in time after finding a man with maps of several churches and material needed to make multiple bombs. listen. >> any time you see a sack full of bottles, you know, with tape around them and a bunch of material, or, you know, thinking like that, you know, that is not normal crash. [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. bill: they are pweurpbg u.s. flags and the eu flags in the streets of athens, greece this morning. apparently these are hundreds of retirees clashing with the police during a protest against looming budget cuts in athens. greece is currently being forced to roll ou

. >> it has never been done before. >> been done a couple times. jack kennedy lowered tax rates. >> oh, now you're jack kennedy. jon: they touched on the biggest issues for americans jobs and the economy. their messages directed at middle class voters. >> can you declare anything off limits? >> mortgage loopholes. higher deductions, from higher income people. >> can you guaranty no one making less than 100,000 have a mortgage deduction impacted? >> this tax as million small businesses. he keeps trying to make you think some movie star, hedge fund guy. >> 97% of the small businesses make less than $250,000 a year. would the no be affected. >> this tax is a million people. a million small businesses. >> does it tax 97% of the american businesses? >> it taxes -- >> foreign policy. >> want to get people out of poverty in the middle class for self-sufficiency. we believe in upward mobility. that is we'll push for in romney administration. >> we saved a million jobs. i never met two guys more down on america across the board. we're told everything is going bad. 5.2 million new jobs, private

joe biden moment it wasn't. paul ryan was giving him example. first one was jack kennedy. and he said now you are jack kennedy. listen to what he was saying >> chris: we knew because paul ryan said. i expect joe biden to come at me like a cannon ball. he seemed like he was amped up on 5 hour energy . the very first topic libya and it was tough on the administration. but there was something that the administration had in its pocket and that is mr. joe biden. made stuff up and forget about the house testimony we heard and experts and people on the ground said we asked for more help and mr. security. joe biden said that never happened. watch. >> there were no protest why did that go on. >> it is what we were told by the intelligence community. and they told us that and they learned more facts, they chaced their assessment. >> they wanted more security there. >> we were not told that. and we did not know they wanted more security. at the time we said exactly what the intelligence community told us they knew, that was the assessment. as they changed their view we made it clear. >> bri

, and three other americans. once patrick kennedy goes there, i'm anxious to hear what he has to say. he's going to be responding to the committee republicans including the chairman, darryll issa. in the meantime go back to jack for the cafferty file. jack. >> the question this hour is why obama won't talk about benghazi instead of talking about big bird. pete writes from georgia, jack, consider his worshipping followers. 90% of them probably think benghazi's an italian line of shoes while feeling right at home with stories about big bird. for him to deal with reality on any is a line of italian shoes. >> rod writes that obama has to distract any attention from his record. they failed to secure the consulate in ben zazy. r writes personally, i don't want him to talk about it, especially when there's an investigation going on. did it not occur to anyone that there's a reason no terrorist group has taken responsibility? do you think it's a safe idea for the president or the secretary of state to broadcast what they know about the situation? mark says obama can avoid talking about what

. >> senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> the debate in 1992 was described as a free for all. >> in foreign countries, foreign aid -- >> senator, it's in your book on page 3 -- >> vice president dick cheney and john edwards was barely civil. >> the first time i ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight. >> he is wanted to go after medicaid, social security, and policy. >> i think he will get a zinger or two from joe biden. i don't think he is worried as being perceived as talking down to paul ryan. >> and other moments cobe important too, he showed his emotional side in the last debate. i know what it's like to wonder if your kid is going to make it. >> and because they have never gone head to head, anything could happen. >>> and vice president biden and congressman ryan face off in their on vice presidential debate tomorrow night. you can watch it live on cnn and cnn.com. our coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern. happening now, a hearing about the quilling of the united states ambassador. and the mother of a dead navy seal chastises mitt romney. i'm wolf blitzer, and yo